Christmas In Brooklyn
by BFCAS
Summary: It's Christmas morning in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn and Beca has just woken up. But when she wakes up alone instead of with her expected company, Christmas becomes a lot less merry.


Hello and Happy Holidays to everyone! Unless you don't celebrate the holidays... In that case Happy December! Or if it's not December when you read this then Happy WhateverTheDateIs!

This is just a Christmas themed one shot I wrote after seeing Pitch Perfect 3 (SRSLY GO SEE IT.) because Bechloe live together and that is just a fic writers dream. So, expect so many domestic fics after this.

In regards to my other works which people keep asking if they are done- long story short, no. Short story long, I've got actual essays to write and apparently, writing fanfiction about fictional gays does not equals grades. Ridiculous.

Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy this Christmas themed story and as always let me know what you think and if you want more of anything because that makes me warmer than a Bailey's hot chocolate in the snow dudes.

Enjoy!

...

Beca felt her eyes open slowly and groggily, a far throw away from jerking open at her usual 5:30am alarm. It was finally Christmas Day and the first day she'd had off for a while from BFD Records, being totally snowed under with last minute producing work for every Tom, Dick and Harry wanting to throw out a holiday single out into the world.

But now it was Christmas and she had a whole three days off. And sure, she wasn't spending it with her Mom in Australia or her Dad and Sheila in Spain, but that didn't mean she was spending it alone.

Beca rolled onto her back and stretched her arm out instinctively to seek out the person who was always there when Beca woke up. But as her fingers met the cold, scratchy sheets of the pull out bed as opposed to soft, warm skin, she furrowed her brow and sat up in bed to scope out the rest of the apartment for her usual bed occupant. Not that there was much of the apartment to scope considering it was only 400 square feet.

As she sat up, Beca's muscles twinged with pain, stiff from the sleep she'd just woken from, meaning she had very much slept in. She could also tell it was much later than usual because there was sunlight streaming in through the cheap nylon curtains, making it well past eight- when she was usually just arriving to work, already pissed off with some stupid comment from her boss.

Now though, she sat on her (uncomfortable yet comforting all at once) bed in her poky studio apartment alone, the noise of Christmas music floating through the ceiling and excited chatter coming through the floor.

Usually, Amy and Chloe would be there too, whenever Beca was home, such were their schedules. But it was Christmas Day and Amy had flown back out to Australia to stay with her family until New Year, so she was nowhere to be found- or heard for that matter, the sounds of her crashing about in the morning always waking Beca up.

But Chloe? Beca had no idea where she was. She was always in bed when Beca woke up, curled up under their shared duvet in their shared double bed in their shared apartment, so reaching out and not finding her there made Beca frown as she pulled the duvet tighter around her small form. Chloe provided all the warmth she needed, so her absence left the bed feeling colder than usual.

It had only been Christmas Eve when Chloe had announced she would be staying in Brooklyn for the Christmas and New Year period. Beca had to try extremely hard to not show her joy at that news, considering Chloe had actually been pretty upset that her parents had had another huge argument and had decided to spend their Christmases separately in different states. Chloe's parents were always so hot and cold, being in love one day and teetering on the edge of divorce the next. But Chloe loved them equally and after deciding she couldn't choose just one, she had made the decision to just stay in New York for the holidays.

Beca had promised her they would have fun and after Chloe had nodded with a sad smile and the beginnings of hot tears in her bright blue eyes, Beca had pulled her into a hug and regaled her with all of the things they could do on their very first Christmas together: from breakfast in bed to cooking (an inevitably inedible) Christmas dinner with all the extras to watching terrible Christmas films whilst eating a whole tub of sharing chocolates to themselves- all while never changing from their pyjamas.

Chloe had laughed and Beca had smiled back, excited for her first Christmas with Chloe Beale.

Because they had done faux Christmas dinners with the Bellas all those years in college, always a week before the actual day, and had spent time with the others families on Boxing Day and winter breaks, but they had never had a Christmas just them. And Beca was secretly thrilled it would be just them; whilst she had loved all those other times, she quite selfishly wanted Chloe Beale all to herself.

But where was the redhead if not in their tiny apartment?

Usually, on the rare occasions Beca had a day off, Chloe would be found in the kitchen in the morning, singing softly to herself as she made toast or pancakes. She would always always make two plates of whatever she made as well as two mugs of coffee, setting them on the table before crossing the room and crouching down beside Beca, who would always pretend to still be asleep like she hadn't been watching the older woman go about her day with quiet adoration, purely because then Chloe would smooth a gentle hand over her hair and kiss her forehead softly before murmuring, "Wake up Becs, breakfast is ready." And she was not going to miss that opportunity at any moment possible.

Partly because who doesn't want to wake up to breakfast and coffee ready made? But mostly because ever since her junior year of college, Beca had had the hugest crush on Chloe Beale. When Chloe had moved in with her and Amy after graduation and Amy had shotgunned the bed in the unofficial bedroom behind their unofficial wardrobe, leaving Beca and Chloe to share the double pull out sofa bed every night, Beca had come to realise that the whole domestic situation and way she and Chloe became so much closer was because she was in love with her.

But Chloe was her best friend and she would happily live in unrequited love with her best friend if it meant that she kept Chloe by her side.

Which was exactly where Chloe wasn't right at that moment, much to Beca's huge disappointment.

Beca scanned the apartment for clues as to where the redhead could be, noticing her purse and coat missing from their usual place on the hooks by the door. Beca sighed. So she had gone out. But where?

Beca looked for clues and her eyes fell on a post-it note stuck to the fridge. Even though the apartment was small, Beca couldn't make out was written on the yellow paper but knew that the elegant penmanship was that of her best friend.

Beca pushed the covers from her, bunching them in a pile at the end of the bed, then stood up. The floorboards were freezing cold beneath her bare toes and she frowned moodily at the icy temperature in the apartment, grabbing Chloe's blue knitted jumper (that Chloe had stolen from her brother a long time ago) from a hanger and throwing it over her head. She pulled her hair out and into a messy bun atop her head as she crossed the small expanse of floor to the fridge, finishing her hairdo just in time to pluck the note from the fridge to bring it to her face and read.

'Becs,

1st, Merry Christmas! Yay!

2nd, Sorry I'm not there to wake up with you on our first Christmas- had to leave early to catch the bus in time :(

3rd, I know you've stolen my jumper- put it back Mitchell ;D

See you soon,

Chloe

x'

Beca smiled, then felt her heart break and then laughed softly as she read the note. Catch the bus? So Chloe had decided to spend Christmas with one of her parents after all. Why had Beca been so naive? Of course Chloe had wanted to spend Christmas with her family. It was all in her forgiving and loving nature to use Christmas as an excuse to get her family together again. "Stupid," Beca thought as she crumpled the note and threw it into the corner of the room, not looking where to aim through the watery film of tears sitting on her eyes, "I'm so stupid for thinking she wanted to spend Christmas with me."

Beca took in a long breath and exhaled it, the sound resounding off the walls of the empty apartment.

Beca held up the sleeve of the jumper and wiped the solitary tear she'd been unable to hold in from her cheek when she was hit with the smell of Chloe's perfume on the jumper. And suddenly Beca was hit with a huge wave of disappointment and not smelling that in person that the tears that had stayed on her eyes trickled out as well, running over warm cheeks and onto blue cable knit fabric.

After a minute or so of crying in the kitchen, Beca shook her head and wiped all the tears from her face. This was stupid. Crying on Christmas because your best friend wasn't there with you. It was selfish and silly and all of a sudden Beca felt determined to distract herself.

She started by flicking the kettle on and opening the cupboard to retrieve a mug. On instinct, she pulled out two before catching herself and putting one back- there was no one there to use it.

She prepared herself a coffee as she simultaneously searched the fridge for breakfast ingredients, trying her hardest to ignore all the chocolate and Christmas food her and Chloe had planned to eat. There was no way she was going to eat it now, not on her own. Well, maybe she'd tackle that sharing tub of chocolate with a bottle of wine later…

She settled on eggs, whisking them in a pan as she finished off making her coffee as well as made some toast. It was so far from Christmas breakfast, but Beca didn't want Christmas breakfast- not if she had to eat it on her own.

She halfheartedly assembled the (slightly grey) eggs on the (slightly soggy) toast and stirred the (slightly scummy) coffee one final time before transferring both her plate and her mug to the table, setting them down clumsily and watching as a splash of coffee fell onto the surface. She ignored it though, just sitting down in her usual seat with a thud.

She looked at the empty chair opposite hers. The wave of heartache swept over her again, flipping her stomach and turning her right off eating the disappointing breakfast in front of her. So she just poked her fork around the plate, staring into space and thinking of what Chloe was doing right now. Or more accurately, what Chloe and her would be doing right now if she had decided to stay.

They would be drinking coffee and eating pastries in bed, still wrapped in their duvet as they laughed at whatever terrible holiday lifetime movies Chloe had promised she had downloaded onto her laptop. They would laugh and smile and somehow end up cuddled together in the centre of the bed where the mattress dipped and they would be happy.

Or at least Beca had guessed. But clearly not, seeing as Chloe had decided to spend it in some random state amongst family feuds and in whatever motel her parents were staying in.

Beca took a sip of coffee and grimaced at the lack of sugar and imbalance of milk to water. She could never make coffees as good as Chloe. She pushed the mug away with one hand before picking up her fork again and sighing as she looked down at the plate of eggs and toast, just trying to decide which bite she should start with.

Just as she had picked out a somewhat appetising forkful of food, she was startled by the sound of a knock at the door. She looked behind her before dropping the fork and food back onto the plate.

"Coming!" Beca yelled as she stood from the table, sweeping her fringe from her eyes as she crossed the floor to the front door. She fumbled with the latch for a second with her cold fingers before turning it and swinging the door open.

"Ah, thanks Becs, totally forgot my key, I'm such a scatterbrain." Chloe smiled, flushed from the cold air outside. She was holding a large paper bag in her arms and was bundled up in scarf, coat, hat, the lot. She brushed past a shocked Beca, clearly not noticing the way Beca's heart was beating loudly out of her chest. She placed the paper bag on the table and moved back over to the hooks by the door, Beca standing still and mouth slightly agape the whole time as she followed her best friend with her eyes.

"Wait, did you make breakfast without me?" Chloe asked sadly from her place by the hooks as she shrugged off her purse and coat onto hers. The question made Beca jump into life and she shut the front door before walking to the table again.

"Well, I, uh, I read your post-it and you said you were catching the bus… And you weren't here when I woke up and I, uh, I just guessed you'd gone. You know, like gone home. Or to your Dad's or Mom's or whatever." Beca rambled as she cleared away her breakfast things, embarrassed that she'd fully made such a sad looking breakfast without Chloe on their Christmas.

Chloe turned around, now just dressed in sweatpants and a jumper after shedding all her other layers, watching Beca scrape the now lukewarm eggs into the bin and tip the gross coffee down the sink.

"Sorry, no, I meant catch the bus across town to Denny's. Sorry, that wasn't clear but those things are tiny- there's only so much information you can squeeze onto those damn things." Chloe joked, making Beca smile with relief. "I'm not gonna skip out on our Christmas Becs. How else am I gonna give you my awesome present?" She winked. And suddenly Beca grinned with happiness. Not without pairing it with an eye roll of course, as was the Beca Mitchell trademark.

"Good. Because there's enough food in that fridge to feed the five thousand." Beca gestured to the whirring refrigerator she had already rifled through once that morning. Chloe laughed and moved over to the table, reaching into the paper bag and pulling out it's contents one by one.

"Well, you better have room for more because we, Beca Mitchell, are starting our Christmas with holiday pancakes in our bed whilst we watch 'Ice Sculpture Christmas'." Chloe beamed as she extracted two styrofoam containers from the bag. "Pick your poison, white chocolate raspberry or pumpkin cream?"

Beca didn't answer. She just smiled dumbly at the woman across from her.

Here they stood in their little apartment, both wearing no makeup with scruffy bed hair, dressed in comfy yet unflattering sweats/jumper combos and this beautiful woman was still stood there offering her pancakes in bed. How had she won this lottery?

"Becs?" Chloe's amused question brought Beca back into the room and she shook her head with a blink to get her eyes to focus back on the suspicious smile on Chloe's face.

"Uh, raspberry please." Beca pointed at the box on the left, not actually knowing if it was what she wanted. Chloe picked up both boxes and moved to the bed, placing them on the chair by her side of the bed. Beca watched as she straightened the bunched up duvet and rearranged the pillows.

"Could you grab my laptop from Amy's bed please Bec?" Chloe asked over her shoulder as she placed the two styrofoam containers on the end of the bed. Beca crossed the apartment floor and ducked behind the makeshift room divider to grab her friends laptop that sat atop the duvet of her other friends still unmade bed. She could hear Chloe singing some cheesy Christmas song as she grabbed cutlery and made fresh coffees and Beca's heart felt like it was straight out of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas- growing three sizes at the sound.

This was their little Christmas and Chloe was here and Beca was happy.

"Hey, Chlo?" Beca asked as she emerged back into the main section of the apartment, prompting the redhead in the kitchen to turn and face her with a smile on her face and a teaspoon clutched in her hand.

"Yeah?" Chloe replied with a beaming smile that made Beca temporarily forget what she was going to say. In fact, she only just remembered to hold onto the laptop in her arms at Chloe's natural smile, choosing to put the laptop on the end of the bed next to the two boxes of food, before carrying on.

"I'm kind of glad you decided to stick around for Christmas." Beca shrugged, not wanting to reveal any of her long harboured feelings by being too overly sentimental. Chloe still smiled softly at Beca's sentiments, knowing the younger girl well enough after nearly seven years of being her best friend that she was trying to convey emotion.

"Yeah? Only kind of glad?" Chloe teased with a smirk and a raised eyebrow before turning around to pour water into the two mugs on the counter. Beca was so busy up in her head with staring at the way Chloe moved and how she spoke and how the apartment seemed so much warmer with her in it that she didn't realise words were coming out of her mouth until after they were in the air.

"No, like so glad dude. I woke up and you weren't here and then I read your note and I thought you'd left and it was like Christmas didn't matter any more." Beca blurted, clamping her mouth shut and gulping nervously as she awaited the reaction of the woman who currently had her back to her. Her heart thumped anxiously in her chest until she heard Chloe laugh- even her laugh was like music to Beca. She was in deep.

"Is that why you made sad looking eggs without me?" Chloe chuckled as she stirred the coffees, tapping the teaspoon on the rim of one mug before throwing it into the sink with a clang. She turned around with a mug of coffee in each hand, that easy natural smile still spread across her face and still making Beca want to reflect it. Chloe walked past her and set the coffees on the floor next to her side of the bed, Beca following her instinctively as she always did.

The two women settled onto their bed, Chloe fussing over setting up the awful lifetime special on her laptop and Beca rearranging the duvet and pillows until she was sat up against their makeshift headboard. Then the film started with a blast of overly cheesy holiday music and Chloe was shuffling so she was sat right next to Beca, plonking a weighty styrofoam box of delicious smelling pancakes on each of their laps and handing her friend a fork.

Beca took it with a smile, feeling their cold fingers brush together for a split second, Chloe smiling right back. This was the Christmas Beca wanted. Had wanted for the last six years and would want in all the years to come.

"I'm sorry if it's cold." Chloe gestured to the pancakes before grabbing the coffees from the floor and handing Beca hers to have on her side of the bed. "I tried to wrap it up in my scarf in the bag to keep it warm but then I got cold and all I could think about was how warm the bed would be." Chloe rambled on as she took the lid off her box.

"It's cool. You didn't need to go all that way just for breakfast." Beca interrupted her as she mirrored the removal of her lid. Damn, maybe Chloe did need to go all that way because the pancakes in the box looked incredible and smelt even better.

"I know." Chloe said, Beca feeling her shrug against her own shoulder. "But I wanted to."

Beca would've thanked her or reassured her she appreciated it but right at that very moment took in a mouthful of breakfast that definitely prevented any words from escaping her full mouth. She sighed in delight at the delicious flavour and heard Chloe laugh next to her.

"Worth the trip then?" Chloe chuckled teasingly, nudging Beca's arm with hers, making Beca nod as she chewed.

"So worth it, oh my god." Beca spoke, her words muffled through a mouthful of food. She was about to say thank you to her friend when she was interrupted by the press of lips on her cheek.

They were there for a long moment and then Chloe pulled away slowly as Beca turned her head to look at the redhead who was still in closer enough proximity that Beca could easily count the freckles on the bridge of her nose.

"Happy Christmas Beca." She said quietly, an adoring smile playing on her lips, stealing Beca's breath away in favour to focus her brain more on counting all the shades of blue in her eyes. Beca swallowed her mouthful of food and cleared her throat, all whilst still staring at Chloe at an impossibly close yet far proximity.

"Happy Christmas Chloe." Beca nodded, her eyes flitting for a second to the slightly dry from the cold lips of her best friend. Instantly her mind screamed at her to just lean forward and kiss her. To throw the breakfast from the bed and kiss her until the movie ended. To kiss her until she had to return to work in 72 hours.

But she was her best friend. And she couldn't do that.

So she settled instead for smiling an awkward tight lipped smile before turning her attention back to the food in front of her. She saw Chloe do the same thing in her peripheral vision and maybe it was just her imagination but she thought she heard Chloe sigh. In annoyance or disappointment or at the food Beca didn't know, just accepted it and move on, not wanting to read too far into things.

And so they sat, eating their breakfast in bed and laughing at how god damn awful the lifetime holiday movie was, both perfectly happy on Christmas day for the first time in a long time; they were Beca and Chloe and they had each other on Christmas.


End file.
